Lightning Returns -Final Fantasy XIII- Original Soundtrack

Commentary

Masashi Hamauzu – Composer

After working on all of the most important scenes of such a grand story of such epic length, I’m beginning to feel like I’m reaching the limit of how far I can go in expressing one climactic moment after another. Ever since the series reached its mid-point, I found myself thinking, “I need to make sure I support the scenes well from here on out” or “I should create a finale that ties everything together.” But with the visuals and story of the Final Fantasy XIII series, I have found ways to break through my own limits from within.

Lightning Returns represents the completion of these things. With a hightened level of focus and a steadily increasing passion for the work, my work with Toriyama-san is reaching its own conclusion. When I reached the ending, I cried for the first time in all of my work on the series.

Naoshi Mizuta – Composer

An incredibly talented group of many musicians and arrangers. Engineers who record and mix with such a quality as only specialists can provide. A staff lineup, headed by Kawamori-san and Hamamoto-san, who handled all of the scheduling, in-game implementation, and studio booking, so that we composers could completely dedicate ourselves to composition. This soundtrack could not have been created without the help of each and every one of these people.

This game has such a strong creative lifeforce to it that every element, from the story to the visuals to the battles, seems to give rise to musical ideas of its own accord. You could even say that the game itself demands this kind of music here, with these elements fashioned in this particular way, to accompany this specific scene. To me, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is just that kind of game. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to have worked on it.

Mitsuto Suzuki – Composer

I have been involved with the Final Fantasy XIII series ever since I joined Square-Enix. Being able to work on what you would call our flagship title has truly been the big work of my late 30s. Having turned from a consumer into a creator, I want to keep moving forward at this rapid pace as long as I am able to express my experience of utter surprise.

I am sure that all of the people I have met and worked with, both inside and outside the company, will be a big help to me in the future as well. I would like to give everybody at Square-Enix Sound as well as all of the related staff a round of applause, and my thanks.

Ah, one more thing. Because it’s Final Fantasy XIII, the final battle theme is 13 minutes long. I hope you enjoy the little extra.

Translated and Edited by Ben Schweitzer. Please do not republish without written permission.

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Ben Schweitzer. Last modified on September 20, 2014.